Here's 'Broadway Boogie Woogie'.
A song by Peter Vermeersch performed by Flat Earth Society and Ernst Reijseger at the Middelheim Jazz Festival 2012. Including the hilarious tap dance by the one and only Wim Willaert.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Saturday, August 16, 2014, I happened to be in Schangnau, Switzerland, at the Zapperlot! festival.
Day 2 of the festival had an unbelievable line-up : Inventionis Mater, Öz Ürügülü, Anton and the Headcleaners, Mörglbl, and Fido Plays Zappa. And that was just the bands that played at the main stage...
For me, Öz Ürügülü was the greatest discovery.
Progressive, instrumental, experimental rock with some eastern and jazz influences. I loved it.

The band had also brought their first album along: "Forgotten Archives".
This, my dear friends, is something that you definitely need to hear.
If you're in to Secret Chiefs 3 or Zappa,...

Italian duo Inventionis Mater just released their second all-Zappa album, "Kong's Revenge".

Inventionis Mater will be doing concert in Sarzana and in Lovoleto (BO) in February, and will be playing at the Moo-Ah festival in March.
For July, they're planning a European tour (Switzerland, Austria, France, Germany,...)
They're also evaluating the possibility to do a tour in the U.S. in August.

If you have suggestions, contact the band through their facebook account.

"Culture Clash Live" and it's twin brother "Secret Show - Live In Osaka" have both been released.
I'm listening to the downloads at this very moment.
They both sound great.
Can't wait to have the physical copies in my hands...

Afroskull, the band that used to include a couple of Zappa tunes in their live performances ('Peaches En Regalia' and 'King Kong' !!), has a new album out.
It's called "To Obscurity And Beyond" and features Ronnie Cuber on saxophone. That's the same Ronnie Cuber who can be heard on Zappa's "In New York" and "Lather" albums.

The Skordatura Punkjazz Ensemble released their first album, "How To Chase A Minute In One Second" about one year ago.
The band is getting ready to start recording their next album and will be setting up a crowdfundingproject.
The kick-off concert will take place at 'Vrijstaat O' in Oostende (B) on March 27, 2015.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

"Erratic Tails" features (composer) Mattias Laga on clarinet and bass clarinet, Michel Mast on tenor sax, Pieter Baert on piano, Xavier Verhelst on 6-string bass and Simon Raman on drums.
Special surprise is the addition of The Wofettes: Cécile Broché and Anouk Sanczuk on violin, and Eline Deurinck on cello.
It's impressive to hear how the strings add extra layers to the compositions. Great arrangements !

Fun !

Here's a live version of the first track of the album, 'The Rabbits Are Restless Tonight'.

Adrian Belew's "FLUX" kickstarter project, included a lot of fine rewards to its participants. One of them was a download of 'I'm Food For You', a track that has Hooter Johnson (performed by Adrian Belew) playing the blues.One of the most impressive rewards, however, was "Twenty", a 20-song-sampler that got pressed in a limited edition of 173 numbered, signed and dedicated copies.

"St. Valentine's Day Massacre - Winterland Arena Broadcast San Francisco 1976" is another 'radio broadcast' album that is being released in the UK.

Features Lowell George.

• RARE LIVE LITTLE FEAT RADIO BROADCAST FROM 1976• This concert, when Little Feat was opening for Jeff Lyne’s Electric Light Orchestra, remains one of their mostlegendary performances.• Originally broadcast live on KSAN radio, this concert has been heavily bootlegged in the past.• This fantastic performance captures the band playing their funky New Orleans flavored rock like no one else.• Also highlighted is Lowell Georges unique slide guitar playing.

JANUARY 21 at THE BAKED POTATO
A legendary club in the dank environs of beautiful Hollywood-transitioning-into-North Hollywood California…
(3787 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Studio City, CA 91604 to be precise)

Presents
MIKE KENEALLY & BEER FOR DOLPHINS
(mid-90s power trio style)
featuring BRYAN BELLER and JOE TRAVERS
performing loads of old favorites
(including one pretty majorly obscure entirely insane composition not played live for around 19 years or something)

TWO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SHOWS (aside from the fact that we'll play the aforementioned insane composition at both shows)
9:30pm and 11:30pm
IF YOU CAN BE THERE, DO! BE! THERE!

Then, on January 30, we got kind of a special show at Java Joe's in San Diego. Last month I met a couple of very cool musicians at a holiday party thrown by the San Diego Troubadour (who stuck me on the cover of their December issue): Jeff Berkley, a local guitar player I've respected for a very long time, and Jamie Shadowlight, a violinist who was new to me. I heard them both play that night and was instantly struck by their spirit and musicianship. Hanging out with them along with my dear friend Claudia Russell from San Diego radio station KSDS Jazz 88.3, and Joe Flammini, proprietor of the venerable acoustic venue Java Joe's, we all got to talkin', and the result was the planning of this unique trio performance:

JANUARY 30 2015

MIKE KENEALLY, JEFF BERKLEY & JAMIE SHADOWLIGHT TRIO

Super excited to discover what sort of chemistry results from the meeting of these three elements.
(Playing a bunch of material together which we still need to decide upon – we will begin emailing one another repertoire ideas shortly – any requests?)

Some 35 years ago, I used to listen to this weekly Dutch VPRO radio show with experimental, electronic and noise music. Can't remember what it was called. It also had a newsletter that got sent out (on paper!) every month.
Maurizio Bianchi might have been on that radio show as he is an Italian pioneer of electronic music.
Check out the Maurzio Bianchi wikipedia entry to find out more:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurizio_Bianchi

"Elisionem" got released in 2006 by the Klang Galerie label, in a limited edition of 500 copies.
The liner notes have some nice things to say about what 'elisionem' means.'The 'elision' in the traditional music is a coercive and systematic dispositive necessary to assimilate two syllabic notes in one only. The 'elisionem', in the avant-gardist branch, is a sound absorbent course used amalgamate various sonorous elements into one. The main purpose is to generate an eclectic and axiomatic damping of the electroacoustic particles in order to proportion the achromatic fulfilment of modern concretism. And the final effect is phonographically disarming... psycho-acoustic de-modulations for the current initiates.'

Good news and bad news. The bad news: there's only one great track on the album. The good news: it's the ONLY track on the album. "I Roam the Cosmos" is a 51-minute cosmo-drama call & response between Sunny and June, backed by the Arkestra, recorded in 1972 at Slug's Saloon, NYC. Mastered 24-bit from the original tape, exclusively for iTunes.

It's a raw, soulful performance, discovered by Michael D. Anderson of the SRMA. To the best of our knowledge (and we've conferred with three Ra authorities), this track has never been issued in any form. It is NOT the same composition as "We Roam the Cosmos." It is constructed on the "Discipline 27-II" bed, over which Ra declaims and June echoes & amplifies. The personnel is guesstimated, again with input from a few Ra scholars.

It is unlikely we will release this on LP because it would require artificially dividing a continuous 51-minute piece. However, we're looking into CD release.

Celestial Love is also now available in remastered form, but I'll cover that in a separate post.http://bit.ly/1HCM7N5
Ra to the Rescue currently undergoing restoration, probable release in February.

Irwin

Full digital catalog: http://iTunes.com/SunRaMusic
(Above new releases are in the store at the links but not presently displayed in the full catalog.)

Pledgers' dowload of the soundtrack and of the digital book was made available last month.

Space Is The Place.It will be a celebration in the form of a beautifully bound, limited edition hardcover book. It will contain the movie on DVD as well as a CD of the mighty soundtrack. And the other bonus material will include:· New DVD commentary on the film from Producer Jim Newman· Essays from Screenplay writer Josh Smith and Director John Coney· A book introduction by Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips· An interview with Ray Johnson (who played THE OVERSEER)· Dozens of never before seen photos taken both on and off set during the making of the movie

2015 marks Northern Spy’s fifth year of existence. To celebrate, we’ll be rolling out news about some amazing concerts throughout the year. The first two installments will take place at the SUGARCUBE, an inflatable performance space at the South Street Seaport (NYC). On January 24th, we’re featuring an improv workshop with guitarist Marc Ribot and performances by Loren Connor’s Haunted House and Ribot’s Ceramic Dog. On January 31st, we’re presenting a workshop and performance by none other than Marshall Allen and the Sun Ra Arkestra.

from the Saturn newsgroup:a message from Irwin ChusicMichael D. Anderson and I have been remiss in notifying the list about new Sun Ra digital releases thru the Mastered for iTunes program over the past six months. I will cover them in two emails, and will include links to the iTunes releases, which are high-quality AAC+ 24-bit audio and include free pdf booklets with full album downloads. We had accorded iTunes exclusivity thru the end of 2014 only; as of January 1, all these releases should now be available thru other digital music retailers — but only in mp3 format, and without the pdf booklets.We have noted occasional gripes against iTunes for various reasons (technical, ethical, economic). All we can say is, without the editor at iTunes who first proposed this massive reissue project (because he's a huge Sun Ra fan), in all likelihood none of these releases would exist in upgraded digital format, and none of the previously unreleased material (including complete reissues of Saturn albums which had been overlooked) would be on the market. That editor (who prefers to remain anonymous) opened the floodgates. We have signed a deal with Virtual Distribution to release LPs and CDs. However, we have not yet established a release schedule, because we're discussing how to establish a foothold in a market awash with Scorpio's cheap and inferior bootleg vinyl. We are deeply indebted to a number of Ra scholars who have been helpful in providing info about personnel, recording dates and locations; advice on previous incarnations of particular tracks; tapes and vinyl transfers; cover art; and encouragement. In no particular order, we thank: Christopher Trent, Peter Dennett, Christopher Eddy, John Sudduth, Robert Campbell, John Szwed, Phast Phreddie Patterson; Gilbert Hsiao; Paul Griffiths; and Alan Nahigian. The folks at Strut and !K7 have been a delight to work with on In the Orbit of Ra. Thomas Jenkins, Jr., Sun Ra's nephew and managing member of Sun Ra LLC, deserves tremendous thanks for his cooperation and ceaseless encouragement. I met him in Atlanta in November, and he's a wonderful man for whom I have boundless respect. -- Irwin Chusidpart 1

My Brother the Wind Vol. 1http://bit.ly/1003art
Solo Moog recordings. Bonus track: the complete 17-minute "Space Probe," also on Moog, which had been released on Art Yard CD, but we did additional clean-up on the audio, and we think there's a perceptible improvement.

Continuation Vol. 1http://bit.ly/ZdWlmm
Previously reissued on CD by Corbett vs Dempsey, we did additional cleanup on this album and Vol. 2 below.

Continuation Vol. 2http://bit.ly/1DySnEA
LOTS of additional cleanup on this; much improved over the CvD CD. We also dropped two tracks on the CD which were identical to two tracks on When Sun Comes Out with different titles (Endlessness = The Rainmaker; Red Planet Mars = When Sun Comes Out).

We also reissued (remastered from pristine vinyl; no tapes available):
Sun Ra Quartet: New Steps
Sun Ra Quartet: Other Voices, Other Blues
Sun Ra & Arkestra: The Other Side of the Sun
Roz Croney: How Low Can You Go (limbo album w/SR & various Arkestra members)

part 2

All of these have been remastered, and we trust they sound better than previous CD, LP, and/or digital issues.

Magic City - Stereohttp://bit.ly/1oikDBq
We had originally released the title track (all 28 minutes) in mono, because that's all we had. But Christopher Trent discovered a stereo mix, which is radically different (and one minute shorter!) than the mono. We removed the mono track and replaced it with the stereo last summer, but neglected to notify the list. The entire album is now full stereo.

A Fireside Chat with Luciferhttp://bit.ly/1tVGJOM
First reissue of the lengthy title track. Other tracks from Fireside Chat had later appeared on Nuclear War and Celestial Love. The track "Nuclear War" now appears on Fireside Chat, as we have copied the Saturn track sequence. The rest of the Nuclear War CD tracks are being included on a full reissue of Celestial Love (which will be one of our first 2015 releases).

Voice of the Eternal Tomorrowhttp://bit.ly/1BQBPt6
Live 1980 album recorded at NYC's Squat Theater. Eternal Tomorrow, which had also been released on Saturn under the title Rose Hue Mansions of the Sun, has never been reissued in any format. The music is confrontational, defiant, and studded with explosive outbursts.

Night of the Purple Moonhttp://bit.ly/1vkKbFX
Full album with alternate takes of the title track and "Love in Outer Space." Sun Ra's "psychedelic rock" album, failed to knock Iron Butterfly off the charts.

Sub Underground #1http://bit.ly/1qvoq4G
Thanks to Peter Dennett and Paul Griffiths for providing a tape transfer of "Cosmo-Earth Fantasy," which had first been issued on Art Yard CD. We did additional clean-up on this track. "World of Africa" was discovered by Michael Anderson (two takes, actually) and sounds far superior to any previous version. Despite claims that this album was "recorded live" at Temple U in 1974, subsequent research by Griffiths points to 1968 recording dates for "Cosmo-Earth" and "World of Africa." The other two tracks were probably recorded at Temple in '74, but not in concert (there is no audience). Michael D. Anderson, who attended Temple, believes they were recorded in the chapel, which served as a makeshift performance space.

Monday, January 5, 2015

First and foremost, the Ed Palermo Big Band comes to WORLD CAFE LIVE in Philadelphia-Thursday, January 15 http://tickets.worldcafelive.com/downstairs

I’m working feverishly on this show as I type these words. Philly is my old stomping ground, having seen MANY of the bands that I pay tribute to to this day.
Of course, ZAPPA will be the focus on January 15 at WORLD CAFE LIVE.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 17-Napoelon Murphy Brock makes his return to NYC’s Iridium night club. My big band will be sizzling hot just 2 days after our Philadelphia gig. The match-up of my band and Napoleon is like no other!
http://theiridium.com

Again, the focus will be Zappa with some Todd Rundgren thrown in.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 18-IRIDIUM-The Ed Palermo Big Band featuring Rob Paparozzi debuts their new cd release, ELECTRIC BUTTER- the music of PAUL BUTTERFIELD AND MIKE BLOOMFIELD.

This is our official CD release party!

Finally, there’s the FALCON on SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7. Just a week and a half ago, we played our annual Christmas show there. I hope that all of you get to watch the video of that show. It was one of our best. I believe the zappateer website may have it.

The Feb 7 Falcon show will be a “theme show”, but it’s going to be a surprise.

So, there you have it. Sorry for the long email but at least now you won’t hear from me until March:)

Thx so much to all of you who bought my OH NO, NOT JAZZ t shirts and ELECTRIC BUTTER cds! I have plenty left of both (along with my 4 Zappa tribute cds) so let me know if you’re interested.

Zappatika invited Ike Willis to tour the U.K. last May.
The result can be heard on "Live In Liverpool".

city of tiny lites

stinkfoot

lucille

cosmik debris

zoot allures

the torture never stops

i'm the slime

wonderful wino

camarillo brillo

muffin man

outside now

The download-only album also includes some pictures and two very interesting little movies: Ike solo performing John Lennon's 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away', and Zappatika with Ike performing 'Filthy Habits'.Very nice.

Friday, January 2, 2015

The "Antologia" 6CD-box got released by Hall Of Fame a couple of months ago. It includes the previously released albums, demos, and a live registration.The set also includes two versions of Amor Sucio performing Frank Zappa's 'Dirty Love'. The first one from their "Total... 3" album, from 1993, the second version as part of the included concert.

Searching for the Space Orphans vinyl album earlier this week, made me come across this promotional CDR that I received from Joe Nolan in 2013.
To my own amazement, I hadn't put the data in the United Mutations Archives.
So I gave the disc another spin and started typing.

This CDR (in a blue transparant sleeve) presents four tracks and I can't really read the handwriting on the label, but the first track is the Space Orphans doing a live version of Frank Zappa's 'Camarillo Brillo / Muffin Man'.

About 15 years ago, the three musicians lived together in the same house in Ghent in the Bomastraat, hence the name, Boma Family.
At the time, they performed in bands like Dearest Companion, Think Of One and Humble Grumble.

The three of them were invited to perform at the Sepsiszentgyorgy festival in Transsylvania in 2012, and the reunion was a fact.
Fans of twisted folk music should definitely check this out.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

November 2014, El Negocito Records released this eponymous album by Naked Wolf.
The front cover of the album reads "The room shaking with daemonic orchestras, the snatches of fearful sleep, the voices outside the window." which gives the unprepared listener an idea of what to expect.
Naked Wolf is an international sextet, featuring Yedo Gibson (Brazil) on reeds, Ofir Klemperer (Israel) on piano, ms20 and vocals, Felicity Provan (Australia) on trumpet and vocals, Mikael Szwafirowski (Finland) on electric guitar and percussion, Gerri Jäger (Austria) on drums and percussion, Luc Ex (The Netherlands) on acoustic bass, and Seb El Zin on vocals.

The music of Naked Wolf is experimental and improvised but does carry some catchy melodies and a danceable groove. Add some angular rhythms and some repetitive, hypnotic phrases and you'll get the idea.

The tape includes Jack Brewer (of Saccharine Trust), and not Daniel Johnston as had been stated earlier, screaming about Satan.

Here's the original recording.

Saccharine Trust !

Saccharine Trust is a post-hardcore band from California that was started in 1980 by singer Jack Brewer and guitarist Joe Baiza. The band would frequently perform with SST labelmates Minutemen and Black Flag. Drummer Rob Holzman appeared on their 1981 debut Paganicons but left the band to play in Slovenly, replaced by drummer Tony Cicero. After a ten year hiatus, the band is back together and performing around the West Coast. (2011)